13 Days and a New Challenge

We leave in 13 days!!! I cannot believe it! After 18 grueling months, we are finally going to meet our son! The court date came to us over a week earlier than expected! The judge said all of our documents looked good and set our court date for January 17th. They also think that it looks promising that our 40 day waiting period will be waived and we will be able to bring Matthew home on the first visit! This would be wonderful as we will not have to wait any longer, and we will not have to fundraise for a 2nd trip! (Please pray that we get the 2nd visit waived)

We leave on January 10th!!! We will arrive in Vilnius at 2 pm on January 11th as long as there are no problems. This will give us one night to get over the jet lag before meeting our son for the first time on January 12th! We are staying the in Old Town part of Vilnius... I can't wait to see the historical buildings and gothic architecture. This town bears the scars of centuries of war and oppression. It has barely been a country for very long... I am literally older than the country itself!!! I am not THAT old, you know ;) It will be VERY cold and we are told to pack for the "likely" event that we do not have electricity the whole time! So I will be buying long thermal underwear, wool socks, and lots of pocket warmers!!

I am so excited to announce that our $3000 travel deficit was cut in half thanks to a $1500 grant from the Gift of Adoption Fund! This was the BEST surprise Christmas gift that we could receive. This just leaves us with trying to come up with the minimum of $1500, so I have issued a challenge: If I can get 300 people to donate just $5 over the next 5 days, we will meet our goal! Surely there are 300 people out there with $5 they are willing to spare... give up one Starbucks Cafe Mocha... just one and you can help! Please consider helping us reach this goal (we are already off to a GREAT start with $155 already donated since yesterday!!!) It CAN be done! I am so, so , so excited to finally be completing this phase of our journey and beginning the new phase as a family of FIVE!! My son will finally be home and there will be ONE LESS orphan. Thank you to all the friends and strangers that have stepped out in faith, offered your generous donations, and helped to change the life for one precious child! We can't thank you enough!

Love,

Kellye